Spanish author Carlos Ruiz Zafón's literary thriller The Shadow of the Wind ( 3 of 5 StarsJuly/Aug 2004), which introduced readers to Barcelona's Cemetery of Forgotten Books, sold 12 million copies worldwide. Judging from our readers' reactions, we underrated that book-and we hope that now we're not making the same mistake twice. The Angel's Game is a prequel to that best-selling novel, set in the same city at the end of World War I.

The Story: In the 1920s, David Martín is a down-and-out writer in Barcelona, forced to write a series of beloved, sensationalist pulp novels about the city's dark underbelly instead of the lofty literature he craves. Then, after he contracts a fatal illness and his true loves marries his mentor, David meets a mysterious French publisher, Andreas Corelli, who proposes to pay Martín a fortune to write a mythical story that may just create a new religion. At first excited, Martín grows wary as he discovers dark secrets about Corelli and his publishing house-sinister mysteries that hearken back to his own decrepit mansion and life. Soon, the bodies begin to pile up.Doubleday. 531 pages. $26.95. ISBN: 9780385528702

USA Today4.5 of 5 Stars"Game is a multi-layered confection that combines undying love, magical realism, meditations on religion, the importance of books and a love affair with the vibrant city of Barcelona. Zafón hits the reset button on what it means to be a great writer. His visionary storytelling prowess is a genre unto itself."Carol Memmott

Seattle Times4 of 5 Stars"Its magical qualities require a certain suspension of disbelief ... but what are books for, if not to stretch the limits of imagination? ... It may give you nightmares, but if this book was meant to be a testament to how a book can engage the imagination like nothing else, Zafón's mission can be truly called accomplished."Mary Ann Gwinn

NY Times Book Review3.5 of 5 Stars"Ruiz Zafón's flamboyant pulp epic is something altogether sillier [than Faust], a pact-with-the-devil tale whose only purpose is to give its readers some small intimation of the darker pleasures of the literary arts, the weird thrill of storytelling without conscience. ... He's essentially a voluptuary whose temperament runs to big emotions and the purplish prose that heightens them."Terrence Rafferty

Spectator (UK) 3 of 5 Stars"This is all rattling good gothic fun, but there is a danger that this novel takes itself too seriously. ... The Angel's Game won't quite bear the weight of Zafón's endless aphorisms on the nature of truth and evil, his meditations on the formalising of religion, the manipulation of faith and dogma or the 'sweet poison' of authorial vanity."Honor Clerk

Washington Post3 of 5 Stars"You will either nod approvingly when someone bangs typewriter keys until his fingers bleed or an old widow croaks, 'This city is damned. Damned,' or else you will strap yourself down for a minimalist drip of Raymond Carver and Ann Beattie. ... Only a churl-that is, a reviewer-would ask himself: At what point does excess become excessive?"Louis Bayard

Oregonian2.5 of 5 Stars"In The Angel's Game, it's as if Zafón, lacking historical evil, manufactures dark forces out of the supernatural instead, which struck me as less frightening, convincing or rich-though there is a late-inning hint that [Martín's] writing for Corelli presaged the horrors let loose on the planet by 1945, when the book draws to an end. Still, readers who loved Zafón the first time out, may again."Maya Muir

Times (UK) 2 of 5 Stars"The novel is styled like the penny-dreadfuls that [Martín] used to turn out, with lots of horrible murders, tragic lost loves, crooked cops, shady lawyers, supernatural mysteries and shocking revelations. ... . [Zafón] wanted to write authentic masterpieces or, failing that, good honest thrillers; instead, he sold his soul to produce meretricious and slightly pernicious million-selling middlebrow tosh such as this."Hugo Barnacle

Critical Summary

Readers worldwide loved Shadow of the Wind; critics are more skeptical about The Angel's Game. Certainly, Zafón knows how to tell a story: the novel meshes forbidden love, magical realism, religion and ideas, literature, and gothic horror in a compelling tale. He also knows how to set a scene: here, the architecture, slums, and modernist leanings of Barcelona become a character in their own right. Still, complaints marred the reviews. A few critics commented that the story, despite its far-fetched subplots, takes itself too seriously; its philosophical musings don't quite work. Others complained of the dark, labyrinthine plot, purple prose, and predictability. Still, fans of The Shadow of the Wind will relish this prequel; after all, storytelling-the heart of the novel-is "the master [Zafón] serves, and the devil he knows" (New York Times Book Review).

Also by the Author

The Shadow of the Wind (2004): In 1950s Barcelona, under Franco's dictatorship, Daniel Sempere, the son of a bookseller, discovers a rare novel, The Shadow of the Wind, by Julián Carax, an obscure author. As Daniel tries to uncover the mysteries of Carax and his novels, his path crosses with a strangely disfigured man, a beautiful blind woman, and others with dark secrets to keep.